Inmates get their RFID on

In a show of solidarity with their ankle-bracelet-wearing brethren outside of the prison walls, a bunch of inmates in LA County are about to get some tracking bracelets of their own. OK, I’m just kidding. Solidarity has nothing to do with it. According to RFID Journal the LA Sheriff’s Department is about to launch a program that will track the location of some 1,800 inmates inside prison walls. If all goes well, it could spread to 18,000 before too long, and other counties across the country. The idea is these dudes in lockup get a wrist watch looking thing that contains an RFID tag which sends out a signal every two seconds. By monitoring these signals CO’s will be able to see if anyone is anyplace they shouldn’t be, like tunneling under a wall, hiding out in the kitchen or beating some other inmates ass in a closet. There’s also tons of safe guards to make sure the prisoners don’t tamper with them or try to remove them but here’s my question – Since RFID tags only transmit about 500 feet there would need to be TONS of receivers all over the jail, what’s to stop those from being tampered with? That seems like a much more effective circumvention approach.